I. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to methods and apparatus for preserving and verifying game history on wagering-type gaming machines. More particularly, the present invention relates to storing game history information and verifying game outcomes graphically presented on remote gaming machines.
II. Background
Gaming machines such as mechanical reel slot machines, video slot machines, video poker machines, and the like, have typically been located on the property of gaming establishments such as casinos, etc. By locating these gaming machines on the premises and continuing to monitor and control these machines, gaming establishments can effectively maintain game histories for games played on these games and resolve disputes regarding gaming outcomes by investigating the gaming machines on the premises.
An important feature of these on-site gaming machines is the ability to store and re-display historical game play information. The game history information assists in settling disputes concerning the results of game play. A dispute may occur, for instance, when a player believes an award for a game outcome was not properly credited to him by the gaming machine. The dispute may arise for a number of reasons including a malfunction of the gaming machine, a power outage causing the gaming machine to reinitialize itself and a misinterpretation of the game outcome by the player. In the case of a dispute, an attendant typically arrives at the gaming machine and places the gaming machine in a game history mode. In the game history mode, important game history information about the game in dispute can be retrieved from a non-volatile storage on the gaming machine and displayed in some manner to a display on the gaming machine. The game history information is used to reconcile the dispute.
On video gaming machines such as video poker games or video slot games, the machines are typically operable to provide a visual display of the game history. It is possible to provide a text only version of a game outcome that has been displayed on the gaming machine. However, the visual display of the game history is usually more convincing to a player. Further, it can help the game player disputing the results on the gaming machine to recall the actual results. Both of these factors can lead to a faster and more satisfying resolution of the dispute.
Usually, only a subset of the game history is played back instead of the entire game. For example, for a video poker game, the visual display of information might include a graphical presentation of the initial cards dealt to the player, a graphical presentation of the cards drawn and a graphical presentation of the final hand. After the attendant and player visually review these results, the dispute may be settled.
The recall of the graphical presentation for game history playback has traditionally been achieved by retrieving critical game data from the non-volatile memory on the gaming machine and recreating an approximation of the graphical game presentation using a subset of the game code. The subset of the game code is derived from the game code used to generate the actual game of chance. For each game played on the gaming machine, critical game data stored in non-volatile storage may include the number of credits on the gaming machine when the game was initiated, the wager amount on the game, the paytable used to calculate the game outcome, the game outcome, image positioning information and any other information needed to recreate the visual game history. Often because of storage limitations of the non-volatile memory, a graphical presentation corresponding to the actual game play cannot be identically recreated and only a few specially selected visual portions of the game presentation are regenerated.
Although gaming machines have typically been located on the property of gaming establishments such as casinos, etc., gaming on network gaming environments such as the Internet has also seen a dramatic increase in recent years. This includes gaming in which wagering on the outcomes of games of chance is facilitated. The need for outcome verification and validation in this setting is at least as great as for conventional gaming environments.
In view of the above, it would be desirable to provide method and apparatus that allow outcome verification and validation in an network gaming environment, such as the Internet.